Campus News

John A. Howard, 93, of Rockford died peacefully on August 7, 2015, just a few days shy of his 94th birthday. Dr. Howard began a seventeen-year term as President of Rockford College in 1960. During his tenure he embraced a complex challenge with vigor. He arrived in Rockford to an institution that had (after 112 years as a single-gender college for women) recently become coed – an institution still reeling from the emotional fallout that had ensued. Furthermore, the Board had just made the hard decision to abandon its century-old downtown campus in favor of relocating to a bare parcel of land purchased some 32 years earlier on the City’s far east side. He was faced with raising the funds over an eight year period to construct all the buildings on this campus, paid for entirely through private philanthropy, while mending a wounded alumni base and assimilating a growing student population fed by the baby-boom, all against a backdrop of the 60s that was supercharged with social change and civil unrest.

In 1977, he resigned as President of Rockford College to found, Rockford Institute, a conservative think-tank. With Allan Carlson, he founded an off-shoot of that Institute, The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society.

The Memorial Service for Dr. John A. Howard will be held on Saturday, August 29 at 11:00AM at Westminster Presbyterian Church at 2821 N. Bell School Rd., Rockford, Illinois, 61107.   A lunch will be held after the service at the Rockford University Club. Please email you plans to attend to johnhowardmemorial@profam.org.

The family prefers memorial contributions to The Good Samaritan Fund of Wesley Willows, 4141 N. Rockton Ave. Rockford, IL 61103, Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2821 N Bell School Rd, Rockford, IL 61107, or The Howard Center, 934 N Main St, Rockford, IL 61103. Olson Funeral & Cremation Services is assisting the family.

More information about the remarkable life and legacy of John A. Howard from the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society is available in the following documents.

John A. Howard announcement

John A. Howard memorial service information

Pictured above: President Howard presents Queen Frederika of Greece the Jane Addams Medal for Peace and Freedom, 1964.